The price of a regular, single ticket for an adult has gone up by about 19 per cent, from $19.69 to $23.50. Seeing a red carpet premiere is more expensive, too, up from $38.27 last year to $45 for an adult ticket this year.

TIFF didn’t respond to a question about why the price of single tickets went up.

The festival’s last significant price increase came in 2009, when the price of tickets and passes went up by about 3 per cent. In 2008, a single, regular ticket for an adult cost only $19.29 and in 1998, only $10.75.

Ticket-buyers also paid a Building Fund surcharge for at least three years, with the money going toward the then-under construction TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Not all prices have gone up this year. The Canadian pass, which gets you into five homegrown movies, cost $80 for an adult in 2011. Now it’s a bit cheaper, at $79, and those passes are sold out.

The story is the same for a City to City pass, which gets you into 10 screenings from a chosen city. It cost $156 for a City to City pass in 2011, but this year’s package, featuring movies from Athens, Greece, costs only $113. It’s also sold out.

Jane Phegan travelled from Sydney, Australia, to attend TIFF and waited in a snaking line outside the box office to pick up tickets for four movies on Thursday afternoon.

She’s worried the festival is excluding people by raising its ticket prices.

“It’s such a great city but it’s expensive to come to the festival because the tickets are expensive and accommodation is expensive,” she said.

“My theory is that it soon becomes elitist and average people won’t be able to afford to see the films or be part of the festival.”

Around the corner, University of Toronto student Claire Farmer waited in line to pick up tickets to one movie. The price increase will mean she can only see one TIFF film this year.

“For $23, I’m not going to experiment. I’m going to have to know it’s something I want to see.”

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